A magazine which specialises in plus sized fashion and models has sparked controversy by claiming in a feature that most models who appear on the runway meet the Body Mass Index criteria that indicated Anorexia.
The feature is PLUS Model Magazine is accompanied by a bold photo which features a plus sized model alongside a typically sized model. The magazine claims that this is to encourage plus sized consumers to put further pressure on retailers to cater for them better, and to stop promoting skinny as the ideal. The US size 12 model, 28 yr old Katya Zharkova stars in this shoot, where each image is accompanied by a powerful statistic.
An example of this is a photo of the Russian model holding a tape measure across her bottom, with the words 20 years ago, an average model weighed 8% less than an average woman, today that figure is 23%. Another stated that 10 years ago plus sized models were, on average, size 12-18, but today the need for diversity in size within the plus sized model industry continues to be questioned.
Most plus sized models on the books of agencies are between a (US) size 6-14, whilst the customers express their disappointment with this. The final statistic, which also highlights how badly plus sized women are catered for by the fashion world, tells us that 50% of women now wear a size 14 or larger, but most retail outlets cater to those who are a size 14 or smaller.
Madeleine Figueroa-Jones, the editor in chief for the magazine, says in the accompanying editorial that this feature is a response to a beauty and fashion industry that continues to endorse skinny as the ideal body shape, despite this not only being unhealthy most of the time, but which also alienates a massive percentage of the public.
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